Holt's work inCambodiaCambodia
began in 2005

In 2017, Holt sponsors and donors provided critical assistance to more than 2,991 children and families in Cambodia.

Holt first began serving children and families in Cambodia in the 1970s, when we partnered with a local organization to help thousands of Cambodian refugees who fled across the border in search of safety from war. Not until two decades later, however, did we launch Holt programs in the region. Shortly afterward, in 1994, we had to suspend programs in response to ongoing instability. We returned in 2005, and ever since, Holt's programs have sought to protect children from extreme poverty, child trafficking, child labor and exploitation, as well as help to stabilize the most vulnerable families in the region and prevent child abandonment.

Provinces with Holt family strengthening programs

Family Strengthening Programs

From 1975-1979, more than one in four Cambodians perished during the genocidal revolution of the Communist Khmer Rouge — and those who survived were left to deal with the aftermath. Cambodia still struggles to recover. Today, more than half of the population is younger than 22. Pervasive poverty continues to threaten the safety of children and families. National education systems are lacking. There is limited to no access to safe healthcare in many regions. And in desperate search of work, parents often migrate hundreds of miles from their homes and villages, which puts children at increased risk of trafficking and exploitation.

Education

In every country where we work, keeping children in school is critical to creating generational change. In Cambodia, Holt has education programs in four provinces — serving some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. Through increased access to education and more stable enrollment in school, more children will have the chance to grow financially stable as adults. Holt child sponsors and donors cover supplemental school fees and other material costs — like books and uniforms — for the children in the program. Local, on-the-ground staff also visit regularly with school-aged children to teach them leadership skills and raise their awareness about the tricks traffickers use to lure them away from safety. Local advocates also provide tutoring and meet with parents and teachers about children’s performance in school.

Preschool

To give children a strong start in school and provide a safe place for them to learn, Holt donors provided the funds to open three preschools in Kampot province in 2015. At school, children receive snacks and meals and learn skills like identifying shapes, numbers, colors and letters — setting them up for life-long success in school. Since then, we have opened two additional preschools, bringing the total number of preschools to five.

Advocacy

Children in Holt’s child sponsorship programs are matched with an advocate — a teacher, social worker or local education leader who provides consistent support to ensure every child and family has what they need to thrive. Through home visits and regular meetings, advocates help educate families about the importance of education, find ways for children to remain in school longer, teach children leadership skills, and empower them to spot traffickers and report abuse or child labor. Additionally, advocates check the child’s home for safety and security, and provide opportunities for the child’s family to grow their income, improve their living conditions and grow more food. Overall — in Cambodia and all countries where Holt works — child advocates play a critical role in helping entire communities grow stronger and more stable.

Women's Community Groups

Single mom and female-headed households are among the most vulnerable families in rural Cambodia. Many women living in rural areas — especially those who lived through the Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-79 — received little or no education as children, and they may not have any formal job skills training. To keep children safe in the loving care of their families, Holt helps parents — and women in particular — gain the skills to generate income and support their families. In two rural provinces — Kampot and Prey Veng — Holt’s on-the-ground partners have also worked to develop women’s self-help groups in several villages. At monthly group meetings, mothers or grandmothers in Holt’s programs gather to discuss common problems, encourage one another, participate in a community savings and loan program, and learn income-generating skills, such as raising livestock. Many of the women in these groups have doubled and tripled their incomes with the skills they’ve learned and the support they’ve received. These community groups are also helping to reverse one of the most destructive legacies of the Khmer Rouge — strong individualism and lack of trust between villagers. By teaching women how to work together to solve problems, children and communities are much safer and better cared for overall.

Microloans

In rural Cambodia, very few people have access to banks to save money. Instead, if they need a loan — often to cover expensive medical bills — they may borrow the funds from a predatory lender who charges many times the value of the loan in interest, causing the family to plummet into deep, inescapable debt. To help teach financial literacy in the communities where we work, Holt Cambodia has developed several community savings and microloan programs that empower families to escape their debt and save for the future. Through these programs, donors provide start-up funds to help families — especially women enrolled in support groups — open small businesses or purchase livestock. Women can borrow in small increments of $100-300 dollars, which they repay with zero interest. Once they’ve repaid their loan, they can borrow again. With their loans, the women are able to cover emergency medical expenses, pay off other high-interest loans, or invest in income-generating agricultural activities. The ability to take out a small loan is a huge safety net for families. With the help of on-the-ground staff, community group members also learn about savings accounts, how interest works and other money management basics, like business bookkeeping. As these skills are not widely taught in rural Cambodia, it is a huge business advantage for women — one that ultimately benefits their children.

Income Generation

In rural villages in Cambodia, raising animals or opening a small shop can help vulnerable families increase their income and grow stable and self-reliant. As part of our women’s support groups, Holt’s on-the-ground staff regularly provides trainings to help mothers and grandmothers start small businesses or expand their farms. The women may attend workshops on composting, which helps them increase their yield of rice — providing more food for the entire family. Or, by learning how to raise and vaccinate chickens, pigs or cows, the women in the program can become more successful at raising animals for their milk, manure and labor. When cows and pigs have calves or piglets, they can be sold for profit — and families often use the money to buy school supplies, medical care or other essential items for their children. Overall, many of the families in our program double or triple their income with the help of training or start-up funds. This boost in income prevents parents from migrating in search of work, which provides greater stability to children and helps keep them safe and in school.

Food and Water

In Cambodia, many children and families survive on what they grow to eat — staples like rice, melons and other vegetables. But when drought hits, nothing grows — causing food and water shortages that can lead to malnutrition and hunger-related disease, which are both common among children in Cambodia. To help keep families together and healthy during times of incredible hardship, Holt sponsors and donors provide emergency food and water to children and families when necessary.

Anti-Trafficking

Facing extreme poverty, limited educational opportunities and a lack of safe communal spaces in rural Cambodia, both children and parents can easily fall prey to the tricks traffickers use to lure children into bad situations. To help keep children safe, Holt’s on-the-ground staff has organized peer-led education groups in every village where we work. Now, older students help teach younger children about their rights, how to spot and report abuse, and how to identify a scam intended to coerce a child into being trafficked.

College Support

When a child from an impoverished rural village has the opportunity to attend college, it is a time of great celebration for the entire village. A college degree is one of the single most effective ways for children to escape poverty forever. However, there are few universities in Cambodia and almost all of them are located in the nation’s capital city, Phnom Penh. Migrating from a rural village to the bustling city can be dangerous and scary for students — not to mention, very expensive. To help students succeed in college, Holt staff help to find safe apartments and jobs for each student, host weekly support and study groups and generally provide the resources and encouragement each student needs to perform well. Holt donors provide some college scholarships, as well as small stipends for students’ living expenses.

Orphan Care Programs

Around the world, parents often relinquish their child to orphanage care not because they aren't loved — but out of desperation to keep their child alive and in school. This is especially true and common in Cambodia, where malnutrition, illness and lack of safe housing are serious threats to a child's health and safety. Through our programs in the region, we aim to prevent child abandonment, reunify children in orphanages with their families, and improve social welfare practices by working alongside local, regional and national government.

Family Reunification

With a generous grant from GHR Foundation, Holt created a pilot program in Battambang province that aims to reunify children living in orphanages with their birth families and provide the support and services families need to stay together long-term. In the same community, Holt is working to keep families together and prevent abandonment at the outset by providing the tools and resources families need to grow strong, stable and self-reliant.

Social Work Training

When a child enters the U.S. foster care system, a social worker develops
an extensive file about that child — his or her parents' names, addresses,
extended family contacts, medical concerns. All kinds of details that will
be critical to providing ongoing care to that child and, eventually,
reunifying the child with his or her family.
In Cambodia, the social welfare system is severely underdeveloped. There
are very few social workers in the entire country, and digital and printed
record-keeping is neither standardized nor systematic. Often, children
enter orphanage care and no one records any information about their birth
family, which makes it very difficult to reunify children with their
families later. To help caregivers, social workers and local ministry
officials begin implementing these important practices, Holt staff is
teaching these skills through partnerships with Cambodian orphanages and
communities.

Research

With a grant from Save the Children and USAID, Holt is partnering with university students in Phnom Penh to research and develop a model of care for effectively reuniting children living in orphanage care with their families. This research has the power to transform how international charities provide care for children living in orphanages, and will even help keep more children with their families.

A Message from Thoa Bui
Vice President of South and Southeast Asia

The poverty in Cambodia is among the worst I've ever seen. It's not just
that families or communities are poor — it's that several issues compound,
and there is no way for families to receive help. In addition to lacking
food, one parent may have a disease that would be easily controlled by
medication, but that medicine is too expensive or too hard to find in their
very rural community. Or, I meet many families who have built their homes
from scraps of materials because they can't afford the wood to build their
whole house at once, and in addition to poor housing, their only water
source makes them sick. There are many reasons why children and families in
Cambodia feel hopeless and afraid to dream of a better future. But, with
the support of donors and sponsors, you can make a difference for one
child.
Sponsorship donations
keep kids in school and help entire families transform their lives and
communities. Kind and generous donors help to build new homes and schools
and provide things like pigs and cows, which are miraculous for families.
The impact of your donation in Cambodia is very large, and on behalf of the
children and families we serve, thank you for the work you do.